The gathering – which takes place the third Thursday of the month at 406 E. Santa Ana Blvd. – gives some of the neediest downtown residents a free wash and dry. This simple task has brought together volunteers and low-income and homeless residents to converse and learn about one another.

“The great thing about laundry, it has a lot of down time,” said Scott Overpeck, co-founder and organizer for Laundry Love Santa Ana.

The First Wash

Laundry Love Santa Ana started in 2009 as the Santa Ana Project, an outreach activity for the 511 community center. The center, which was at 511 E. Santa Ana Blvd., was leased to the project by NewSong Church. “We were talking about how to connect with people that have needs and how to meet those needs,” Overpeck said.

Finding a laundromat near 511 wasn't hard. Coin Laundry was about one block away; Overpeck waited for three nights for 64-year-old owner Jeff Soo Won Jun to show up so he could ask if they could use the space for free.

“(The) first thing was convincing him it wasn't too good to be true,” Overpeck said. “Once it connected he's been a supporter ever since.”

The first event was one of the largest Laundry Love gatherings at the time, Overpeck said. It drew 30 families and covered the cost of about 200 loads of laundry, the Orange County Register reported in 2009.

The community center eventually closed, but many of the volunteers who put on the first event continued to host Laundry Love nights. They've also started a pending not-for-profit organization under the same name, 511, Overpeck said.

Today, Laundry Love Santa Ana is part of 511, Overpeck said, which works independently of NewSong Church.

Outreach, including flier distribution, was done for the first event; these days people discover Laundry Love Santa Ana mainly through word of mouth.

Laundry Love Santa Ana is one of more than 70 nationwide. The idea, started by JustOne in 2003, is an open source initiative that allows multiple Laundry Loves to operate independently, and gives a step-by-step guide of how to start one.

In Santa Ana, volunteers are asked to donate money in order to fund specific or future Laundry Love nights. Kids have celebrated their birthday parties at Laundry Love Santa Ana, asking guests for donations instead of presents.

On average, 30 to 50 individuals and families sign up for laundry service, Overpeck said, which adds up to $400-$500 per night. Most of the money comes from volunteer donations; sometimes sponsors participate.

For example, Wells Fargo and Case Crown – a cellphone case manufacturer – provided funds during the last two summers, a time when volunteer turnout is typically low.

A cleaning party

Coin Laundry bustled with activity from 7 to 10 p.m. on Sept. 19 during a fourth anniversary celebration. Children decorated the front windows, shopping carts loaded with laundry rolled into the growing line of patrons out front, and the sounds of conversations between young and old – drowned out by cumbia music – sparked smiles from both.

Patrons began lining up outside the one-story building at 5:30 p.m.

Teresa Torres, 48, was the first in line because she wanted her choice of the larger washing machines.

Thania Machoro, 17, came with her mom and sister to wash their family's clothes. Machoro said she wears the same clothing for up to two days because her family can only afford to go to the laundromat every three weeks. She was able to do two large and small loads of wash for free.

“(My mom) gets mad when you change every day,” said Machoro, who lives across the street from Coin Laundry.

Natasha Najand, a 25-year-old cosmetology student from Mission Viejo, talked with a man with multiple tattoos on his face and body about how he got his first tattoo of his girlfriend.

In the same visit, Najand said a woman told her about the death of her son and how she has dealt with it.

“It's like I've known all these people all my life,” Najand said.

As people brought their laundry – much of it in shopping carts or large trash bags – more than 35 volunteers decorated doors, windows and columns with streamers and posters, helped people at the washers and dryers, and passed out snacks such as pizza, juice and cake. More than 90 loads of clothing were covered for the 30 signups, many of which were families.

Jun, in a cowboy hat with a hole on top, passed out candy to those in line and inside the laundromat. Jun, a Korean immigrant, has let Laundry Love Santa Ana use his laundromat since it began and has even given money to the event.

“(To make) other people happy, that is my pleasure,” Jun said.

From Wash to Sales

511 is looking to expand its other project – Santa Ana Soaps – as a way to fund Laundry Love and to employ those it helps, Overpeck said. The program would hire people to make soaps and train people in sales and marketing as a way to build their résumé, all while paying them a living wage. The group is looking for partnerships to help develop the training program.

The enterprise is still small in scale, Overpeck said. Soaps are homemade and operations are run by volunteers. Soaps can be found at Share and Do Good in downtown Fullerton, at Road Less Traveled in downtown Santa Ana and online at santaanasoaps.com.

“Santa Ana Soaps is a social enterprise to meet the needs of Laundry Love and our needs for the community,” Overpeck said.